Wellness Tool: What’s Holding Me Back? A Motivation Mapping Tool to Move You Forward

Purpose: To help you identify what’s holding you back and understand the motivations behind your goals so that you can move forward with clarity, confidence, and intention. This reflective tool supports you in recognising internal and external drivers, exploring unhelpful thoughts or fears, and building a realistic, supported plan for action and sustained progress, in any area of life.

1. Gain Clarity

   Get grounded in where you are and where you want to go.

   • In one or two sentences, identify your current position and your desired outcome.

   • Identify who or what is the driver for this new action, goal, priority or aspiration.

   
   

2. Reflect on What’s Working

   Look back to learn what supports or stalls your progress.

   • What has been working?

   • What has not been working?

   • What key elements are fundamental for success or for less favourable results?

   
   

3. Understand Your Motivation

   Discover the forces behind your actions.

   • Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, rather than for any external reward or pressure. The motivation comes from the internal satisfaction and pleasure derived from the activity itself. These can stem from challenging yourself, experiencing curiosity, building a sense of autonomy, through cooperation, and the enjoyment of a job well done and shared with others.

     • List your internal motivations.

   • Extrinsic motivation arises from external factors that drive a person to act. Instead of the inherent enjoyment or satisfaction of the activity itself, the motivation comes from the anticipation of a separate outcome. This outcome can be a reward or the avoidance of punishment. These can include money, praise, being given a grade, promotions, recognition, special privileges, avoiding failure, negative feedback or exclusion, or having a compounding benefit rather than direct results.

     • List your external motivators.

   
   

4. Explore Your Personal Drivers

   Pinpoint what fuels or drains your motivation.

   • What drives you to take action?

   • Where do you get your energy, focus, and engagement?

   • What pulls you toward, or pushes you away from, challenges?

   • What thoughts derail you, sabotage you or offer excuses?

   
   

5. Shift Your Mindset

   Challenge assumptions, uncover beliefs, and look for what’s possible.

   • What is really important to you here?

   • What do others think is really important about this?

   • Where do yours and the general ideas of important factors differ, or are similar?

   • How feasible is your desired outcome, goal, or aspiration?

   • What has been getting in the way or might get in the way of success?

   • What can be done to reduce these barriers?

   • Why do you believe this goal is achievable?

   • What do you need to know, do and believe in order to succeed?

   • What would help you?

   • Who could support you? Who could you talk to?

   • What could you remove, reduce or avoid to support your chances of success?

   • Who can you learn from? What knowledge would you like to gain and from what source?

   
   

6. Exploring Fear

   Understanding deeper drivers to reduce your resistance or hesitation.

   • Is there a fear that is holding you back? Fear of success, greatness, failure or unworthiness.

   • Is there a fear that you are not good enough to achieve what you want?

   • Is there a fear that you are unloved, unpopular or will lack positive support from others?

   • Is there a fear of being perceived as projecting negative or potentially stereotypical attributes?

   • Is there a fear that progress will be too hard and feel daunting?

   • Is there a fear that others will actively hold you back if you try?

   
   

7. Create Your Action Plan

   Start small, stay supported, and keep moving.

   • List manageable first steps toward this objective.

   • List possible supporters.

   • List actions to take when anticipated barriers or others try to hold you back.

   • List actions to take when it gets a little too challenging.

   • List actions to take when you're feeling bored or deflated.

   • Choose your first or next action to progress toward your ideal outcome:

     • What will you do?

     • How will you do this? Visualise all the steps you will take.

     • Who will support you? How will you ask for support? When will you ask them?

     • When will you take these steps?

     • What will you do now to move from inactivity to action?

   
   

8. Sustain Your Momentum

   Turn insight into sustained action by being specific about what to start, stop, or shift.

   • Use this table to get clear on the actions, thoughts, and realistic expectations of yourself and others by listing what you will Start, Do More, Do Less, Stop doing, thinking, and expecting.

   

   
   

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Take the next step in your wellness journey by exploring the Wellness Focus Plan. Together, we can work toward achieving your wellness goals and creating lasting change in your life.

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